


Steps

by trascendenza



Category: Psych
Genre: Community: three weeks for dw, Gen, Trans Character, Transfic Mini Fest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-30
Updated: 2010-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-11 08:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/110287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trascendenza/pseuds/trascendenza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Their friendship is tentative at best.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [transfic minifest](http://kanata.dreamwidth.org/1255196.html?thread=9861660#cmt9861660) for 3W4DW.

Their friendship is tentative at best. It's taken years to get here, to where they can have a cup of coffee without him looking at Vic with his broken-hearted eyes, and Vic likes it. He likes that they can be civil again, that he can remember what it was about Carlton that he'd loved in the first place. Carlton's found someone, a nice woman named Delilah, and Vic suspects that's what made all the difference: now Carlton doesn't look at Vic to fill whatever's missing in his life.

Vic's seeing someone, too, a woman named Tenika, and he feels guilty that he hasn't told Carlton yet. He feels guilty trying to explain it to Tenika, explain why he's hiding her, but it's not really her that he's hiding -- he'd never be ashamed of her.

The only dresses and skirts left in his closet are for seeing Carlton, his father, or to take care of bureaucratic things, because his driver's license just confuses people. It feels like steps backward, like the bras and soft fabrics are too constricting.

_You're deciding he's too close-minded without even giving him a chance,_ Tenika says, and Vic always replies that she doesn't know Carlton. Carlton has split the world into two categories: his way and the wrong way. Vic doesn't like the idea of destroying what little they've managed to build. He hates the idea of Carlton suddenly looking back on their marriage through a completely different lens, and he knows that Carlton won't be able to see anything else after Vic has told him. Vic hates the idea of being reduced, hates the idea that Carlton will think this is what ended them, because it was so much more than that.

He wishes he could have told Carlton earlier, wishes that he could figure out how to come out to his dad. (Wishes he didn't secretly fantasize about holding out until his father passes, because he knows that's a thought unworthy of him, but sometimes the prospect is so daunting that it surpasses overwhelming and is more like drowning.)

_Don't push it too hard,_ Tenika says, planting a kiss on his temple. _You'll get there when you need to get there._ Vic leans against her and tries to believe it.


End file.
